“The need for this change exists in a raw, repressed, and reckless state in the lives and consciousness of colonized men and women. But the eventuality of such a change is also experienced as a terrifying future in the consciousness of another: “species” of men and women of colons, the colonist.”

I decided to use this quote from Fanon because it shows what the colonize people are under colonial rule. Plus the idea of the colonist understand their subjects are just words of the wealth you want more money through colonization and ruling over people. Fanon mentioned about decolonization and how it works but he states that the men that comes out of the end the decolonization. In addition decolonization is the creation of new man and I think that is interesting because the people that were colonize would become their own man with their own rules. In addition within the colonize country the officals are people from the colonizer government trying to keep the colonize people under check in any form possible, and violence is one of those forms. An perfect example of the oppressed colonize people are under the oppressors is “We have seen how the government’s agent uses a language of pure violence. The agent does not alleviate oppression or mask domination. He displays and demonstrates them with the clear conscience of the law enforcer, and bring violence into the home and minds of the colonized subject” (p.4/PDFpg.5).

He mentioned how the ‘native’ people are living in their quarters. These people were living in s “disreputable place inhabited by disreputable people”(Ibid).In addition these sectors are always seeking something to eat The world between the colonizer and the colonize people are two divided world which one of those group of people are from different species. The difference of skin color comes to after because if you are white you are rich but if you are rich it is because you are white. it something that has been placed since the colonization has occurred. But what Fanon was trying to say it is not what you have the in the bank but the ruling class (species) is always the outsider and they are different from the natives (indigenous population/ ‘others’).

Fanon mentioned that thee colonize feel envy because they hope one day they could take the place of the colonizer. It is something we can see in our modern world that we want to become that rich person and do not have to work as hard anymore and look through the windows. In addition the way he describe colonization is close to a prison that has a 24/7 surveillance and restriction. I believe it is close to a dictator regime even though in the colonization world the colonizer benefits.

Colonization that he notice is (what I see) more dominating when the other group want more from the other groups. Fanon talks about the colonization of Africa and how colonization effects and the hold of western aspect of life should be is still instill today (education, thoughts of becoming rich and do not have to work anymore).

I learned about the riots that were going on in London through the videos that were shown in class. Personally I do not get involved in riots that might endanger me because it is a move towards what I think people say radical. I am a type of person who does not go to the spot light and try to be behind the scene and see what will happen – the outcome of the event. The reading about “reading the riots” states that this report is a focused study of what is not previously experienced in “nature, motivations, attitudes, and experiences of those who rioted across London and in Brminham, Manchester, Salford, Nottingham, and Liverpool.”(pdf pg., 2).

There were 270 people that were interviewed because they were directly involved in the riots in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, and Nottingham. These interviews were confidential. There were more adults from 18-25 involve and up to 30 percent of teens were involve. But the majority ethnic people that were involved were African Americans. (This is not surprising because people of color in any place in the world are being oppressed and denied things from their home.) This report is very important because they focused on who was involved in the riots and what were their Mo vitiations as any other people wanting to get involve.

One of the motivations of the people in the riots was the treatments they were getting from the police it is 85percent the reason the riots had happen (which in the 2 videos shown in class stated). Also in the interview they state that police lack of respect and anger and due to the stop and search they were targeted most unfairly (pdf,pg.4). There were 185 interviews in long and 3 in Nottingham. The majority of the people where students and unemployed and I was surprised to find out that most of the people who were rioting are the poor people of the country. I actually interested in the polls they have created for the protesters believe what was the cause of the riots (on page 11). In addition to the people that were involve in the riots there were more men than women. There were 79percent of men a 21percent of women in the riots which people who got involve in the riots states that was the amount of women involve in the riots.

So the riots unfolded as a small-scale disorder in Tottenham in August but the protest went sour when the police shot a local black man two days earlier and this event caused an uproar of violence which was presented in future protest. The first day of the protest in August the family of Duggan wanted to speak to the senior police officer but tensions grew and two thrown police car was set on fire. Later in the evening to the night the looting in the streets which the next day in Enfield another breakout had occurred was another looting but in the stores.

However it does not matter where the riots occurs it is the reasons why they are doing these riots and one the reasons is that the “police is the biggest gang out there” and the word gang in these is “people who try and intimidate members of the public” (PDF pg.18). I find it a new phrase that the police is like a gang because I feel that the police are corrupt politicians. I have taken a sociology course called sociology of social movements. In addition some rioters wanted to have their revenge against police

I understand that these people want to hurt the police but making the riots become more than what truly was (friends and family trying to speak to the chief police officer of the killing of Duggan. But even if it was only about him the riots became more than hearing out the chief police it is about the repressed people who have to take the abuse of the police. Sadly 81percent of the people believe riots would happen again, and my opinion and what have had happen or yet to happen would occur someday.

Overall I believe what Merton trying to say is that people finds a way, in deviance action, to show the world what is going on and this is what is happening. Also as mentioned the majority of the people that is being involve in the riots are people who are unemployed and they seek the help of the government and not the being repressed by the police for being what/who they are. I think in certain situations violence is the only thing people are willing to use to show the world the sick reality and show that the people who are rebelling are rejecting the values in society and its goals but they are trying to show the world there has to be some type of change (similar to innovation).

Goffman describes stigma as “deeply discrediting” (pg.Pdf6) attribute of a relationship with people or society. An example he brought up is that in American society there are jobs that discredit workers due to not having an education. “A stigma, then, is really a special kind of relationship between attribute and stereotype, although I don’t propose to continue to say so, in part because there are important attributes that almost everywhere in our society are dis- crediting.” (Ibid) I believe that we in society often do this especially when we meet new people or trying to understand them. I know there are parts in society that people judge you were you are from there are some stereotypes that judge the whole community instead of the person (individual ).
However there are people who try to change their stigma by changing their condition around them in a private sense approach (pg. 11). An example for this could be someone never giving up on learning how to swim or even try to set an imaginary line where people will one day respect them not for their looks but for what they are able to bring in the table. This reminds me of an anime I watched called Naruto where the main character Naruto is stigmatize as “that kid” and a negative being in society because he had a nine-tale fox demon sealed inside his body. He overcomes those sayings from his village by making them see he is a person and not a bad or worthless. Naruto said one day the village would respect and acknowledge him as a person and become (one day) the leader of the village.
(I do not know if this is relevant but I felt that we as people in our own society feel that there is noway to give up in our dream to move up in society. I know that one way that someone could up in society is education. But there are people who are unable to afford to go to school to move up in society which other people perceive lazy or not worthy of being there.)

In class we talked about different aspect of stigma and how some stigma stays with you. In addition we talked about the fact some people believe in the stigma society gives them and become what they are. Also we discuss that there are symbols of prestige and stigma which is some what they mean in social aspect of life. There are three symbols that convey of social information: prestige, stigma, and disidentifiers. Prestige symbol is a status symbol that indicate you are in a high class or not. Stigma symbol shows the attention of identity through discrepancy (reduce society’s value of the person). Disdentifier symbol are the signs intended to break up the stigma (what people or society perceive you are – similar judging you) but in a positive way.

An blog that was mentioned in class about being poor interested me because usually the poor are the one being judge more on their looks and where they are from. An example of being judge is the video that was shown in class about the poor are in UK, people in the town was judge as “Chavs”. So in this blog, Drawing Blood: Being poor Person in America is about the blogger was introducing himself with other grad students where they are from. He mentioned that one of the students mentioned that the mother works as an administrative assistance and not as a secretary and this made him feel what was the purpose of the other name. However he mentioned that he did not say that his father was unemployed before he died was because it was shameful. I somewhat understand his feelings about unemployment because in American society you must have that high level pay jobs to be in a high status. Or even have a job at least so you are able to be part of the working world.

There are two videos that I found that is interesting about stigmatizing poor people in America. The first video is about the stigma of finger printing for food stamps and Coumo states that people are hungry. However this video we see that people feel shame for applying for foodstamps and some people are suffering from hunger. Another video is about the stigma of poverty. It is hard to live in a society that prices goes up and poverty increases. These changes are literally making people stay in the cycle of being poor.

I believe that struggling to fight the stigma is a cycle that is going to occur over generations. I do not know if I could achieve a good life but I know that one day my family could achieve a good life but sometimes working hard would not cut it. (I know people who does not work hard earn more money than people who work hard.)

What I understood from the reading was what society follows such as social order and by how we process our action. In addition Merton discusses certain phases of social structure that generate circumstances which alters or make changes to social codes of a ‘normal’ response. He mentioned that there are two important purposes for social and cultural structure are “analytically separable…merge imperceptibly concrete situations” and acceptable modes on achieving personal or cultural goals (p.672-673).

Also we have to understand that everyone have personal intentions to achieve there desires. These desires they are hoping to achieve must be secured usually occurs in institutional means. Merton mention sports and how sports are restricted (de institutionalize) because some rules from society is not enforce. In addition Merton discuss the goals which are 1.Conformity, 2. innovation, 3. Ritualism, and 4. Retreatism in both cultural and institutionalized means/goals 5. Rebellion (someone who reject values and goals).

I believe that he was trying to see through the lenses of why people use antisocial behavior to achieve goals that sometimes are not okay in the norms of society. When people are alright in both cultural goals and means are ok in doing so but people defy one or the other can be either ritualism, innovation, retreatism, or rebellion. Ritualism is when people conform to society means but not without expectation achieving cultural goals.

I think that in society create the people in these different categories because with so many different norms and stress factors that controls our actions it makes one stand out more than the other. For example I could bring up is what we have watched in classes, the second video showed how everyone wanted to have an affordable education but the other faction wanted justice for the killing of a man. I feel that there are situations that could be deviant but some could not be deviant because there are reasons that prevent it to be called deviant. But society would still look at it as something bad which some people with good reasons still have to pay the price for the people in power who are doing the wrong.

While reading the souls of black folk I notice that the experience of black people in the 20th century American Scoiety is due to chains of slavery. I mentioned chains because of the racial boundaries that was created due to the color of the skin. In additon I believe that black folk by Du Bois is important because he mentioned the color line (as mentioned the boundaries of “white and color”), double consciousness (“the sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by this tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (Edles & Appelrougth
,351)), and viel (an invisible but noticeable aspect of life that if one has skills such as craftsman, if he is black he is a poor craftsman because he loves in a condition of poverty).
Furthermore Du Bois brings into the table that even though he did all his research he cannot deny that these African-Americans are actually cannot move up easily at the moment (maybe a few if they have the resource to) because poverty is what these people are trying to surpass and do well. However these thoughts and ideals are something great to over pass the trials and the pain these people have to undergone to but the society of white put them there. In the white folk reading it mentioned that African Americans coming back from the first war were treat was second class citizen. In additon between 1910s-1920s the “new negro” started to show their educational side. However this was something dangerous for the black community because the NAACP nearly doubled and helped anyone who needed help. Unfortunately with the new group with literacy and militancy and due to that change.
Du Bois mentioned that the white privileges are invisible to white but for blacks is showable and it constructs the double consciousness and the racial aspect of it too. In additon the funny part is that how can the white people kill their own American people (the blacks for being more educated and wanted to have the same rights because they are also Americans and serve the war) and say what happen in Getmany and to the Jews was immoral and disgusting. The saddest thing is that lunging and rape is what the white people think would make the African American back to their place is not a good thing. I notice that the old thoughts of pre-salvery and after the civil war created this hysteria of fear that blacks are going to control America. I think the fear that you cannot allow someone out of their cage is dangerous and the unknown of that action can cause different reaction from people (and the masses would be corrupt in some ways and uncontrollable to the point things would go wrong).

From my point of view understanding racism is one of the simple yet hardest concept or reality to accept because it depends on the generation that we live in. For example the generation that we live in do not like to see racism out in the open because it deem to be something that is brought back from the dark parts of American History or shows that some people are ignorant and do not consider that what they are doing is against the ideals that everyone is equal and it does not matter of race, skin color, language, or just where you come from. I know personally is that my parents feel that anyone who are dark skin are black, delinquents, and should stay away from. I remember one of my classmates in middle school was walking by a public school near my home and they said hello me and my sister but my parents said who are they (and both of the boys are dark skin but one is from Ghana, looks like a dark Indian and the other is an African-American descent) however my parents told me and my sister to stay away from them because they are black and these people are bad people to mingle to be friends with and that this world (American society) you cannot have real friends because they will turn their back on you for only one reason, because you are different from them. However, I did not understand it but I did not consider what they said but I felt weird if I didn’t obey them (like I would get into trouble with them if I do not consider their feelings but I felt that I should choose who would be my friends and judge them through their actions not by the way they look like).

The study of the Philadelphia Negro is to tell or show the “geographical distribution of this race, their occupations and daily life, their homes, their organizations, and relation to their million white fellow-citizens” (Edles & Appelrouth, 340). He states that this study started in first of August until the thirty-first of December of the following year (1896-1897). He canvass door to door surveys of the Seventh Ward in Philadelphia (this area has about or over 10,000 African Americans and he distributed or carried out about 5,000 surveys).

“All this is true – all these problems are there and of threatening intricacy; unfortunately, however, the interest of the ordinary man of affairs is apt to stop here. Crime, poverty and idleness affect his interests unfavorably and he would have them stopped; he looks upon these slums and slum characters as unpleasant things which should in some way be removed for the best interests of all. The social students agrees with him so far, but must point out that the removal of the unpleasant features from our complicated modern life is a delicate operation requiring knowledge and skill; that a slum is not a simple fact, it is a symptom, and that to know the removal causes of the Negro slums of Philadelphia requires a study that takes one far beyond the slum districts” (Ibid, 341).

I have decided to use this quote from the book because it not only caught my attention but the way Du Bois mentioned that crime, poverty, and the idleness affects the interests of the people in a bad way and would have these interests stopped. In addition Du Bois mentioned that “he looks upon these slums” and the people in them as something that is not good to look into. After all these unpleasant people that is part of the slums would be removed and to get rid of people from the slums you must start by getting an education and different set of skills. Un addition within the slums there are different set of people with different occupations such as; laborers, servants, porters, waiters, caterers, clerks, teachers, professional men, and small merchants, etc. This indicates African-Americans that are living in the slums have varied jobs while paying high rents and trying to pursue a better set of jobs for the future of their family and themselves.

However, even if people states that the African-Americans are will off, in reality they are not given the same opportunity as the Irish and the Italian men (as we see in history the African-American population has been underprivileged since early history of American History. The saddest thing is that the perception that the African-American people is/was looked down due to the old ways of thinking and because they ‘look different’ from their white counterpart. Neither the less, the African-Americans, some, are trying to cross over the glass wall or ceiling that the White American gave already set them from the beginning to not achieve the American dream as the other groups who came in American with little money to achieve the American Dream).

Du Bois mentioned that every time throughout his study the prejudice against Negro keeps popping up and everyone knows that it exist. in addition of having the prejudice visible this created the widespread feeling that the African-Americans hate themselves and their blood and keeps them away from having a good job (better pay jobs than underpay jobs). Also because of all the prejudice is the chief or main reason of the African-Americans condition and the saddest thing is that the White community regards white prejudice more. This reason is because you cannot mingle or do anything with someone who looks different from you because you want to keep your bloodline clean and to not have the social norms altered by allowing someone different from you to even step in. I think this idea is what many different groups underwent not only the African-American, Jewish, and Hispanics. I think that certain community the people there afraid of changes and which to keep the place of their home like the old ways.

Du Bois mentioned how the African-American as of getting work, as keeping work, as entering new lines of work, as to his expenditure, as to his children, as to social intercourse, and the result of them all is to the different conditions and treatment, not only people would feel, but the results is discouragement, bitterness, over-sensitiveness. As to the ‘negro problem’ he mentioned that there are two answers which are how the ignorance, poverty, crime, and the dislike of stranger is an old question issue and the not having proof about these questions because it is important to have the evidence of these targeted questions so there is some type of light can shine to the issue. In addition to what Du Bois mentioned that the Negro is here to stay and that they should make more of himself is important because they need to raise themselves and put all their efforts to the standards of modern civilization (society) and not stoop to the low aspects of what society thinks you should be doing and strive over that invisible line that you are able to be like them by working hard.

Sociability is very interesting in a sense that we as people in a modern world want to engage and interact with other people for the sake of connection. He states that our sociable conversation (talking) is the end in itself. An example of conversations being the end in itself is talking to classmates in your class or co-workers at work because you do not want to be socially awkward. In addition, there is other kind of sociability that epitomizes both things that everyone tries to do when they are interested in someone: flirting (coquetry). Flirtation is an erotic form of play “which finds in sociability it’s lightest, most playful, and yet its widest realization” (Edles & Appelrouth, 299). The female that is doing the flirting is trying to deny and consent hints together to draw the man on without letting matters come to a decision “to rebuff him without making him lose all hope” (Ibid, 299). At the end the female decided to continue flirting or to stop all interaction with the man and ended. It is very true today that men and women do all these types of things to get what they want like (I do not know if it is a good example but) in bars there are women who hang in there to find a good man to be with but they do not seek what they are looking for.

“The stranger” that Simmel describe as “remote” or “indistinct” because there are some qualities that we share are general but that is the extent of the relationship. By saying the extent of the relationship is because there are things that we share such as, nationality, gender or race. Also this means that the stranger is not seen as a person (individual) but a as a person with particular characteristics that makes him different (similar to the type of person is). In addition the stranger is able to perform duties that the groups are unable to because they are “unfit”. The stranger is somewhat part of the group but in the outside the stranger has brought a positive contribution that is depended by the group. One example that Simmel mentioned was the European Jews and the traders.

Simmel ideas of fashion are the expression of individualism and make one distinctive of others. He mentioned that the individual will wear clothing that is trending and they are just following the latest fashion. Also, fashion cannot be vogue as Simmel mentioned because people adopt to fashion that is in and if you just want it to be vogue is to not allow general population do not adopt them. I think that it is interesting that some fashions that are in become to ‘last season’ (which Simmel mentioned that it goes dead). Fashion is another type of distinction class because the high class would have the up to date fashion and the lower class, which does not have enough money to pay for fashionable clothing. Fashion is indistinctive in different classes in society and another way to separate people by classes. In modern society there are people (it does not matter what classes you are in) who seeks fashionable items that is trending and they will go to affordable outlets or store to get that. (In my personal sense of fashion, I just wear what I like and would be ok with what body style I have.)

The Metropolis and mental life is the views on money and the psychological effects on individual level and other relationships. I think that in a fast past city as New York we try to gain the best job to gain the life we are able relax and have free time. Living in a metropolis world we have to live with everything that we do daily. We as people invest in all happenings and encounters that make up our own life. One thing that is important is that money is something is that is already standard in our daily life or our satisfaction of what we get from how much we have. The more money we have the more of how we are able to express ourselves and more relationships come about through money (which in doubt to me it is not a real relationship because people are just want to be with you for money). As what I can see from the reading Simmel wanted to show us the reader that in a metropolis society we are corrupt people in the level of individual and human spirit. In modern world and even in society in history do not like to communicate with people who are not good enough for people for high status (such as lower class or beggar class). I know that money represent in power but sometimes that money (if it has power) could help people who are struggling to live normal as possible. I think that people with money should help people in need and what I think Simmel was trying to say in my own words is that money corrupts the people because they strive for high position in society and stomp anyone that gets in away and form relationship with people to get connections.